1—Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns prepaid cards, whether they are microcircuit cards, also referred to as integrated circuit or microprocessor cards, in which case the cards are sometimes referred to as telecards, or prepaid cards with no integrated circuit, also referred to as “calling cards” or virtual prepaid cards. For example, prepaid cards correspond to prepaid telephone use or to a credit issued by a retailer.
The invention relates to setting up of a set of means for making payments of donations to charities. These remote payments, also referred to as telepayments, are effected by decrementing units contained in a microcircuit card or in an account located in a server and associated with a card with no microcircuit.
The invention encompasses all prepaid cards and enables cardholders to make payments to a set of charities.
2—Description of the Prior Art
French patent application FR 2776403 describes an electronic funds collection system based on using an integrated circuit bank card. It relates to making donations to charitable or humanitarian organizations by means of the integrated circuit bank card. The general principle is as follows: for each banking transaction carried out normally, via a standard electronic payment terminal, a donation memorized in the card beforehand, which can be a percentage of the transaction or a fixed amount, increments an accumulator register in the card, under the control of the processor included in the card. The accumulator register therefore holds all donations associated with transactions effected since the last “emptying” of the accumulator register.
A second payment terminal is dedicated to the payment of the amount contained in the accumulator register of the card at the initiative of the person making the donation, i.e. the cardholder. The payment process is totally transparent for the user and the dedicated payment terminal. It proceeds in the following manner: when the card has been inserted, the user enters his personal identification number, as for a conventional banking transaction, and the terminal reads the banking references of the beneficiary organization in the card, resets the accumulator register in the card to zero and delivers a receipt for the amount paid to the user making the donation.
The funds collection system according to the patent application previously cited therefore uses a bank card and each payment results from the accumulation of donations depending on the amounts of respective successive transactions during a given period. The successive accumulations of donations are therefore handled entirely by the card. Also, the funds collection system requires a particular additional operation in the form of a banking transaction using a terminal dedicated exclusively to payment of donations accumulated in the card.